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This morning I woke up and it was freezing!!! In fact, the moment I stepped outside snow started falling from the sky. What a strange place this is - yesterday I was hot and in shorts and flip flops, today I'm wearing my down jacket! Anyway, I headed over to CNCF first thing in the morning to ask Boogi, one of the translators at CNCF, if he could translate my poster into Mongolian in his spare time after work. He said he could and took down my number. About an hour and a half later, I got a call from him saying it was done! I don't think he quite had the idea that he shouldn't be doing this while at work, and that he was getting paid to do CNCF work, not mine, but all he said was "oh, I don't mind!" oh wel.... I had spent about 30 hours of work on that infected laptop of theirs anyway so it comes out alright anyway.
My interview went very well (I think!) this morning. I was able to secure a good Skype connection from a reliable cafe about 40 minutes ahead of time and tested it out by calling mum and dad. It's been a while anyway so it's good to catch up. It'll be nice to visit in just a few weeks time. During this interview, I was asked jut some of the standard questions but was told my answers were "very good, just like a Newcastle graduate!" I would love to live at Coffs Harbour, which is where this interview was for, because it's seaside, a great family area, and not too remote but away from the big city. The only downside is that it'll take just a little longer to travel in and out by plane since most flights will have to go through Sydney. The other downside is that we'll be a ways away from any family, and having a child away from the rest of either of Michelle's or my family will be a challenge. But that would be the same even if we stayed where we were. the only way that would be different is if we went to Adelaide but it would be very difficult for me to get a placement as an intern there - we shall see.
I went to the French Bakery again and did a bit of formatting on the poster but this annoying garbage truck kept driving past with loud music for no apparent reason. After a few minutes of observation, I realised that the truck goes around the neighborhood playing loud music like an ice cream truck so that people know to run out with their rubbish. I guess it works ok, and it keeps rubbish off the streets. Anyway, I was able to get some more work done. And that other project, the longitudinal task, is FINALLY done!
After I got the translation done, I took the resulting poster over to Dr. Gantulga at SOS. We reviewed it and made a few corrections. Apparently, a few liberties were taken in the translation to make it more palatable to Mongolians. For example, don't add salt to your food was translated into "don't add more salt than necessary to your food". "Eat smaller meals" was translated into "eat earlier". This was hard for him to accept, even with the corrected phrase Dr. Gantulga wrote down. Boogi just kept saying that Mongolians like to eat and you can't tell them to eat smaller meals. I finally convinced him that this is what it should read, even after I was questioned if Dr. Gantulga was "a real doctor"!
After a few more formatting fixes, I decided it was time to give Michelle a ring for the evening. It was great to talk to her for a while tonight. It's getting close to time to go home, and I'm missing her more now that the time is nearing. I did a little bit more souvenir shopping for people today as well, and realised I'm going to need another bag to take it all home. Hmmm... yet more shopping to get the bag for my earlier shopping.
As I was walking around town today, I was asked by a few kids for money but today at least I had the chocolate on me. It's a VERY cold day and they quickly hid the chocolate in their inner jacket pockets and ran away to eat it in secret away from other kids that might steal it. Poor kids..... It's such a rough life here on the streets.
Anyway, I grabbed a quick meal at the Thai restaurant around the corner, which cost me all of AU$3.50! What a deal! Then a quick episode of Boston Legal before heading to sleep. The last few nights the guest house has been occupied by people returning from a theological class in the country for select Cornell College (Iowa - not Cornell University) students. It's been hard to squeeze in a shower and even harder to grab some TV time. I think they leave tomorrow - yeah!
So that was my day today - just a lot of running around town trying to get this poster done - I really need to get it to the print shop even though there's a few more changes I'd like to make.
Well, g'night!
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